East Cobb Cityhood debate

Issues over finances and development within a proposed City of East Cobb dominated a second debate on Wednessday, just as they did in a previous forum last month.

With less than three weeks before a Cityhood referendum on May 24, representatives of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood and the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood, made familiar points—and accusations—that have marked their respective campaigns.

Sponsored by the Rotary Club of East Cobb, the event at Pope High School was the final time the groups will be appearing together. (You can watch a replay of the town hall, which lasts nearly an hour and a half, by clicking here.)

Like the previous debate, the East Cobb Alliance questioned the figures in a financial feasibility study, saying many startup costs are not included.

“Estimates, estimates, estimates,” Alliance president Mindy Seger said in response to the Cityhood group’s explanation that a study is not a budget, and that some numbers are estimates.

“Feasibility does not mean sustainability.”

Cityhood committee spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman said that some financials would be worked out during negotiations with Cobb County through intergovernmental agreements.

Bob Lax of the Alliance pointed to the proposed East Cobb millage rate of 2.86 mills—the current levy for the county fire fund—as the major source of revenues.

A comparable city of Smyrna, with a population of 60,000, has a property tax rate of 8.99 mills.

Pro-Cityhood forces stressed the need for local control with leadership on the Cobb Board of Commissioners—specifically Chairwoman Lisa Cupid—advocating “affordable housing near you” that they claim would all but guarantee higher density.

Her proposed 30-year transit tax was put on hold, Cityhood committee member Scott Sweeney said, due in large part to the mayors of Cobb’s six cities.

Cityhood chairman Craig Chapin noted the lack of greenspace in the proposed City of East Cobb—covering around 25 square miles centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor, and said how redevelopment is handled will be critical.

“Who are the right persons to make those decisions?” he said.

The East Cobb Alliance has questioned members of the Cityhood committee with real estate interests and said high-density zoning would be necessary to fund what they claim will be higher expenses than stated in the feasibility study.

“You keep hearing developers, developers, developers,” Sweeney said. “I know that my colleagues and everyone else on the committee favors low density. “But it’s up to the elected officials to make those determinations, the people that you elect.

“The anti-cityhood people are suggesting that that the people you elect are already corrupt. Think about that for a moment. Your choice is to elect people who do not favor high density.”

Lax said the legislation calling for the East Cobb referendum could have included a charter specifically limiting development density, “but you didn’t do that.”

The East Cobb Alliance also continued questioning the need for East Cobb to provide police, fire and 911 services, the only of the proposed four Cobb cities to include public safety.

“How do you improve something that is the best it can be?” Seger said, referring in particular to Cobb’s highly-rated fire and 911 agencies.

Questions also covered public safety response times, parks and recreation services and how a new City of East Cobb would be in a two-year transition period before going fully operational.

“Cityhood is a big step,” Lax said, urging citizens to ask pointed questions before voting in the referendum. “It affects all of us. We can’t undo this.”

Chapin referenced Alliance members who’ve “done a brilliant job on social media . . . with negative messages” about what would happen if a city is created.

“If your vision for East Cobb is not urbanization, then you better vote yes,” Chapin said.

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood is having a town hall at Olde Town Athletic Club (4950 Olde Towne Parkway) on Monday, from 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m.

That’s where an April town hall was held, with questions pre-selected and asked by a moderator.

Attendance is limited to citizens living within the proposed City of East Cobb with a capacity of 300 people. The event will be recorded for replay viewing.

Registration is required and can be done by clicking here. You will have to provide a home address to confirm that you live in the proposed boundaries.

Related:

• East Cobb Cityhood group to hold second town hall
• Glitch leaves off East Cobb Cityhood referendum on some ballots
• Cobb judge orders East Cobb Cityhood referendum to proceed
• At Cityhood debate, citizens asked to keep an open mind
• East Cobb News Cityhood information page

 

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When a May 24 referendum on East Cobb Cityhood was called earlier this spring, John Beville said was undecided on how he might vote.

A resident of the proposed city of nearly 60,000 residents, Beville said he initially thought he could support voting in favor of a new municipality when “city light” legislation was introduced last year.

Unlike a previous East Cobb Cityhood effort, this one would be centered not around public safety services but planning and zoning as a means to preserve the suburban character of the community.

Even after a financial feasibility study was released last November that included police and fire services, Beville said he was riding the fence.

But after hearing arguments for and against Cityhood at an East Cobb Business Association debate Tuesday, Beville said he’ll likely vote no.

“There’s still a lot of information that has not been feathered out,” Beville, an ECBA member, said after the Olde Towne Athletic Club event. “You’re dealing with a lot of ‘what ifs.’ ”

A former banker and now a financial advisor, Beville said the Cityhood supporters “are trying to sell an emotional issue without a financial substantiation of that issue.

“I’ve been ambivalent all along, but there’s no way I can support this.”

Beville, wearing a button in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, said he’s not enamored with some of the Cobb zoning votes of the Democratic majority on the county commission.

But he thinks the East Cobb financial study, prepared by researchers at Georgia State University, doesn’t contain enough details for him about the costs of police and fire equipment, personnel and training.

Stressing local control

During the hour-long debate, moderated by EAST COBBER publisher Cynthia Rozzo, who asked predetermined questions, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood and the East Cobb Alliance repeated familiar talking points they’ve been raising for the last few months.

Before the Q and A session began, Susan Hampton of the ECBA said to the audience that even “if you have already made up your mind, please listen to the other side. We’re all neighbors.”

The pro-Cityhood group stressed the need for development and growth to be handled at the truly local level. The East Cobb area, they noted, will have one commissioner for nearly 200,000 people who could be outvoted.

“What’s the future of East Cobb going to look like?” asked Cindy Cooperman of the Cityhood group.

In response to a later question, she said that “you have to look at the decisions have been made” regarding rezoning, density and growth elsewhere in Cobb.

“It’s just a matter of time” before the East Cobb area must confront that reality, Cooperman said. “Why not elect people who reflect you views and your values?”

Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes Cityhood, said that “We do love East Cobb just the way it is.”

She repeated the familiar claims that incorporating would create an extra layer of government, and that residents of a city would be paying more in taxes, as those living in Cobb’s existing six cities do.

And commissioners “are up for re-election. That’s where you can make that change.”

Questioning public safety

Both sides hashed out repeated positions on the quality of services provided by a city against the current county services.

Unlike the three other Cobb Cityhood referendums—Lost Mountain, Vinings and Mableton—East Cobb is providing police and fire.

At previous town hall meetings, Cobb officials have expressed concerns about increased response times.

Alliance representatives were eager to repeat them.

“I’m most concerned about public safety services,” said Robert Lax of the East Cobb Alliance. “Those services are hard.”

He said the “aggressive assumptions” in the financial feasibility study “make it less difficult to provide the same quality.

“City light was what was proposed. Why are we taking heavyweight services here?”

The Alliance has said in previous public meetings that the Cityhood forces are underestimating the cost of acquiring public safety equipment beyond the state-approved $5,000 transfer of a fire station.

But Craig Chapin, chairman of the Cityhood committee, said that they’re “the top services that you can get in a smaller community.”

It’s part of a larger question Cityhood supporters have been asking during their campaign: “What’s your vision of East Cobb?”

Chapin said that Cobb government officials are “crystal clear” about proceeding with “the urbanization of our neighborhoods.”

He said he’s also confident that “we do not need to raise taxes to create a city.”

While East Cobb Alliance representatives poked holes in the feasibility study, Cooperman and Chapin said their questions are all contained in the report, including start-up costs and franchise fees.

But many of the details of the provisions of services and negotiations of intergovernmental agreements would be hammered out by a future East Cobb mayor and city council.

Should the Cityhood referendum pass, those elections would take place in November, followed by a two-year transition period to begin in January 2023.

Alleged developer ties

The debate remained relatively civil—with members of each side passing a microphone back and forth—until a question was asked about commercial real estate interests on the Cityhood side, and what their agendas may be.

During the 2109 Cityhood campaign, the Alliance noted that 11 of the 14 members of the Cityhood committee either were in the development industry or had connections to it.

“Those people are still around,” Seger said, adding that if a city is formed, pressure will mount to increase a City of East Cobb’s commercial tax base (the feasibility study said the proposed city has a tax base that is 90 percent residential).

Chapin took umbrage at the suggestion to “follow the money.

“That’s categorically false and a conspiracy theory,” he said with some emotion.

Cooperman was also visibly upset.

“This time it’s the sweat of this man [Chapin], myself and the committee members who have been doing it.

“What evidence do they have? Zero evidence,” said Cooperman, who like Chapin was not involved in the the 2109 Cityhood campaign.

Handing out flyers in support of Cityhood at the debate was Andy Smith, an Indian Hills resident and a former member of the Cobb Planning Commission who ran for the Cobb Board of Commissioners as a Republican in 2020.

Smith said while he understands the concerns about public safety services, East Cobb citizens need to be watching the kinds of zoning decisions that have been made in recent years in the county.

He referenced the East Cobb Church rezoning last year in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area, and specifically the residential component of the mixed-use project that generated community opposition.

While the community-focused idea of a church fits in with the JOSH Master Plan, Smith said, housing density at around five units an acre is out of line with the nearby community.

Smith applauded the work of his Planning Commission successor, Tony Waybright, in pushing for a site plan that lowered the density cap, but said in the future that kind of effort is no guarantee.

You can watch a recording of the debate by clicking here.

The Rotary Club of East Cobb is holding a similar debate on May 4 at Pope High School but that event is sold out for in-person attendance.

Related:

• Lawsuit to stop East Cobb referendum is ‘inevitable’
• East Cobb Cityhood group accuses county of campaigning against referendums
• East Cobb Cityhood group slams Vinings referendum lawsuit
• Anti-Cityhood sign to be removed from shopping center
• County officials take Cityhood town halls to East Cobb
• ECBA, Rotary Club to hold cityhood debates
• GOP special election candidate opposes cityhood
• East Cobb News Cityhood information page

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!